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The Angmar Republic
The Angmar Republic is a nation in Radmires Galactic Civ game: It is a confederation of human and monstrous peoples who once served the entity known as the Dark Lord of the North, seeking to build a new future for their people after their rebellion and long wanderings in exile. Cutting all ties with their past as slaves of the Dark Lord, they have deliberately destroyed all knowledge of the Black Speech and the Names of their former Master and his fearsome Servants, seeking to eliminate the last vestige of His power from the world(s). A handful of exceptions exist, notably the Uruk-Hai and Olog-Hai who, in their rebellion, made their Names their own and severed them from the Dark Lords influence. History Long ago, in a distant land, the Dark Lord raised his armies to wage war upon all the world, securing Himself as supreme overlord of every Nation, Kingdom, and Tribe of Man and Beast, and once and for all destroying the Elves. From the Fortress of Shadow, he sent forth his legions of Monsters and Men, empowered by his own dark magic to slay and enslave all who opposed him, his sorcerous servants spreading far and wide to turn those human tribes not under the sway of the Kings of the West to his cause, whispering threats and promises into the ears of lord and war-chief. He failed. His fortress in ruins, the magical foundations sundered as thoroughly as the rock they were bound into, His armies scattered, his works burned. While history, as always written by the victors, would remember the Dark Lord as the warlord of a disorderly horde of Hobgoblins, Orcs, Trolls, and other, stranger things, in truth the real backbone of his armies were Men: The Easterlings, skilled, disciplined Heavy Infantry and cavalry from the tribes and kingdoms of what the Masters enemies dubbed "The Uncharted Lands" due to the fact that they planned on killing the people who had already charted them. At their side were the Southorn Tribes and Kingdoms, fierce warriors from the trackless deserts and jungles of the Sunward lands, combining disciplined light infantry, excellent light cavalry, and expert bowmen with their barbarian kins mastery of the mighty Mûmak, whose bellows turned armies to rout in fear, and were more allies than war animals to many of the tribes that rode them. Last but not least were the Variags, fierce warriors whose mastery of horse, bow, and chariot were second to none, and whose women were as fierce as their men, their feared armored Berserkers breaking any wall of shield and spear that loomed before their horse-borne comrades. It was not enough. With the Dark Lords armies scattered and routed, the full might of the Elven Lords and their human allies descended upon His lands, long scorched and ruined by the energies of His dark magic. In His desperation He willed great reserves of His Power into His remaining servants, ordering them to attack heedlessly while he secured his escape with his most precious Artifacts, his soul woven into each. However, in his haste he revealed his true intent, and so it was that the Man-Servants of the Dark Lord finally learned of the haughty contempt with which he regarded his slaves, Slaves!, and how little he truly cared for their lives. Enraged, the Last Host turned against him, cleaving their way through the Orc Hordes, turning the Power he had thrown into them against the protections on his outer defenses and the magics of his sorcerous servants. In the end, despite what the histories of the so-called Free peoples claim, it was the Dark Lords own servants that finally ended his age-long war against Elves and Men. The first battle was great, the forces of the Host of Men marching against all of the Dark Lords strength proving once again that ramshackle hordes of Orcs and Goblins backed by the brutish strength of Trolls cannot stand against a disciplined army built on Men and Steel. joined by the last of the feared Uruk-Hai and Olog-Hai, the improved and strengthened breeds of Orc and Troll created by the Dark Lords Lieutenant-Wizard, remembered as the White Hand, who was also slain in the rebellion. The hordes routed, the victorious army tried seven times to breach the Black Gate that guards the path into the Ash lands, and seven times was driven back by boulders cast down by Mountain Trolls, swarms of Orc archers with poisoned shaft, and critical lack of siege equipment to topple such an edifice. Eventually, the decision was made to force their way through the infamous Fortress of Pain, which guarded the only other entrance to the Ash Lands. Here came the first true open-field losses among the Host, for the Witch King, the foremost of the Dark Lords servants, had in his Legions his own forces of Men, Death-Worshiping cultists who dressed in spiked black armor, and his own armies of imitation Uruk-Hai, the Great Orcs of the Ash Lands, and Goblin-Men, with packs of dreaded Werewolves and Warg Riders to tear through enemy ranks at every point of weakness. However, the dark imitations wrought in his dungeons could not stand against the white-painted True Uruk-Hai, and the Dread Legion soon found that long years of putting down slave rebellions and intimidating weak nations had atrophied their strength of arms and fighting spirit, whips set with glass shards and coated in semi-poisonous liquid to maximize pain and intimidating but impractical armor doing little to impress elite Easterling infantry and Variag Berserkers. With the gates of the Fortress of Pain breached, the flayed unliving-undying corpses of his enemies finally taken down from their impaling spikes, their suffering ended at long last, the warriors of the Witch Kings Last Stand were in the main his own sorcerous Lieutenants, Werewolves, and his remaining Warg Riders and Goblin-Men. As they prepared for a final stand in the Tower of Agony, readying dark magics drawn from a great reserve of human suffering to rain destruction upon the Host, help arrived in the form of another of the Dark Lords great servants, and one of the few whose name is remembered: Sharya-Rana, a great Sorcerer-King who rode atop Nidhogg, a mighty Black Dragon and longtime friend. With him, came the Deep Orcs, dwellers in the ruined Dwarven kingdoms of the Deep Underground. Taller, stronger, smarter, and more disciplined than the hordes of the Dark Lord, with higher quality equipment copied from Dwarven works, the armies of Sharya-Rana were long seen as the 'Poor mans Uruk-Hai" before the Witch King eclipsed him in that regard with the creation of the Great Orcs. At their side came the Westhill Wargs, a feared breed, fleet of foot, strong of jaw, and cunning of mind who fought as allies to the Deep Orcs rather than the half-tamed semi-intelligent beasts used by most Orcs. The Witch King, who long treated his fellow with disdain, welcomed him into the heart of his grisly fortress, planning to use his allies legions to halt the advance of the Host while his Witchcraft of Blood and Pain neared completion. However, as he invited Sharya-Rana into his inner sanctum, his watch-stones, carved in the likeness of the demons of shadow and flame of the World Before, alerted on Sharya-Rana, marking him as an enemy. Never one to mistrust his own watch-stones, he turned on his would-be ally, who had in fact been planning to slay him at a critical point in the upcoming ceremony, re-directing his evil magic to shatter the outer defenses of the Dark Lords Fortress. In close combat, Sharya-Rana was no match for his blood-soaked colleague, although he severed the creatures right arm and many times drove magic steel through the wrappings of still-living human skin that adorned his frame. In his arrogance, the Witch King strode outside his Fortress after his victory to seize control of the traitors armies, forgetting that the loyalty of the armies of Sharya-Rana was based on more than the Words of Control used by most of the Dark Lords chief Servants. Swarmed by rebellious Deep Orcs and Wargs, he met his end at the maw of an enraged Nidhogg, blood-glyphs doing little to protect his twisted frame from Dragonfire. The confused armies of the Host found the gates of the Fortress of Pain thrown open, where Olog-Hai maces and Mûmakil tusk had not already torn them asunder. There, Deep Orcs lead them to the inner sanctum, where the dying Sharya-Rana told the Kings and Princes of the Host his tragic tale. A Sorcerer-King whose home country was burned by the Men of the West in ages long gone, he fell into the service of the Dark Lord. Misled by whispered promises, he lent his strength and knowledge to the Dark Lords cause, believing that under his dominion he could build the technological, scholarly civilization he had always dreamed of. Clinging to this dream through long years of service to the Dark Lord, rationalizing his behavior and the atrocities committed by the other Lieutenants, he Realized only with the flash of Power and malevolence from the Dark Lord himself that every promise was a lie, and that only slavery and ruin could follow in his wake. His dying wish was for the Host to find a place far, far beyond these blood-soaked lands, beyond their peoples endless feud with the closed-minded Men of the West and the well-meaning control of Wizards and Elves, to build something new for their people. In his Citadel, he said, was the wealth of knowledge, both arcane and scientific, he and his followers had accumulated throughout the years, along with the collection of poets, artists, craftsmen, astronomers, tinkerers, and dreamers he had rescued from blood-soaked lands decimated by the dark Lords armies. Each Warlord, in turn, swore that their sons would find this place, and build the civilization he had striven for in peace, and that his sacrifice would be remembered for all time. Motivated now by more than base revenge, the strengthened Host took the Black Gate from within, admitting the last remnants of their kinsmans shattered armies and a scattering of Uruk-Hai and Olog-Hai intermixed with the other fleeing Orcs and Trolls, all of which were slain. Leaving an elite rearguard at both the Black Gate and the Fortress of pain to ensure that none would disturb their march for justice. For the second time, an alliance of men and non-men marched against the armies of the Dark Lord, fighting swarms of Orcs and Trolls every step of the way, their wake filled with the dead and dying. At the foot of the Tower, they faced Him, and his most terrible Servants. However, unlike the armies of that other age, they knew of the weaknesses of those that stood against them. The battle was terrible, and hundreds of men died in combat against the dark Lords remaining Lieutenants, Uruk-Hai and Easterlings set against Great Orcs, shield walls crashing together with a noise to drown thunder, Olog-Hai working through their unarmored and poorly-armed kin with terrible efficiency, Mûmaks slain by howling Werewolves, who rebuffed every offer to join the rebellion by sadly saying that their fates are bound irrecoverably with the dark Lords, Wargs tearing at each other in whirls of blood and confusion no archer dared shoot into, while all the while the Dragon Nidhogg eliminated isolated units at the edge of the battle, waiting for the true force to make itself known. He did not have to wait long, for from behind the Tower rose a formation of the Dark Lords most feared servants, suspiciously absent from the rest of the battle, set to swoop down upon the Host once it was entangled beyond hope of an orderly withdraw and decimate their ranks.They died in the stead of their victims, flaming comets falling from the sky in testament to the terrible speed and power of a Dragon. Nidhogg would not live to exult his victory, however, as from the gates of the Tower strode forth the creature remembered only as the Beast, a terrifying abomination made in mockery of both Dragon and Man made for the sole purpose of manning the dark Lords magical battering ram, used to break the gates of the greatest fortress-city since the fall of the First Kingdoms of Men. The creature lacked Nidhoggs fiery breath, or at least the ability to use it as a weapon, but made up for it with feral strength and agility, and hide toughened against even Dragonfire. Nidhogg was forced to swoop down, braving the clutching claw-hands of the Beast with each pass, taking a bone-cracking blow in exchange for each slash and bite. In the end, he collapsed to the earth, dying in a crushing embrace as the Beast bled to death from its own great wounds. So ended Nidhogg, one of only five Dragons known to have cared for anything more than gold or revenge. Filled with a terrible resolve, the Host at last faced the Dark Lord himself, their stolen Power all but expended. Standing against him in a contest of swords would be folly, as no mortal weapon could bite him. For this reason, the most elite warriors at the Hosts command were sent into the Tower itself by other entrances, running through and fighting its guardians every step of the way, destroying each Artifact in turn while thousands of men died beneath the baleful gaze of their former Lord in a desperate attempt to keep him bogged down in their number. Finally, he met his end with a final blow from a magical blade taken from the body of one of his greatest Servants, reduced to Mortality from the Power lost in the wholesale destruction of his soul-bound Artifacts and Servants. After the Dark Lords defeat, the Host stripped everything of value they could carry from the Ash Lands, liberating the slaves that toiled in the sunlit southern half to provide food for the Dark Lords massive armies. Meeting the advancing army of the Elves and men of the West at the Black gate, they came to terms. While most of his warlords and allies supported destroying the Host and pushing into the Eastern lands, the High King followed the Wizards advice over theirs and grated them safe passage. Gathering their peoples from their homelands, the hatred of the Dark Lord spreading as those left behind realized just how few survived his war, they wandered for decades, seeking an empty land that could sustain their people without invading and slaughtering the current inhabitants, but finding none that were not perilously close to the Western Kingdoms. At long last, the High King convinced his Elvish wife ton aid them. They were lead to a secret forest harbor, where they boarded great ships made with the secret magic of the Elves, and departed for a distant land. Here, scholars disagree, for many are the tales of a voyage beneath a sky without stars, on tasteless black water that remained glassy calm despite the windless passage of the ships. Tales of strange lights in the deep, and eyes larger than ships peering up toward the surface, and time behaving strangely: What else could cause a jar to shatter before it falls, or a young woman to fall pregnant and raise a son who is old enough to walk and speak when both of them first meet his father? When they emerged into the light of day again, each traveler experiencing a voyage of noticeably different length, they soon realized that all was different. The sea spray tasted strange, the sun and moon not quite the right color, the stars at night arrayed in constellations new and unknown. Setting their charges upon a series of fertile, rain-soaked islands, the Elves departed. It was not until many years later, when the wise men and scholars looking through the library of Sharya-Rana came across papers on the Elves and their ships, did they come to realize that they may have sailed to another world entirely. For what better barrier between two peoples in search of separation than that starless gulf between sunlit worlds, where glowing things live in the dark, and Time flows like the tides? Time after time, Scholars puzzle over these tomes long into the night inevitably abandon them, spending years at a time on crowded sunlit beaches in the company of their fellow man, leaving dark knowledge of the world between worlds in the ancient tomes where it belongs. Of the other nations that fought beneath the dark Lords banner, the Slaver-Kings of the eastern wetlands, the Hill Tribes of the scattered wild places, the fierce Clansmen of the Spiremount, the Troll-Men of the Southern Wastes, the Dark Dwarves of the Darkblade, Shadowaxe, and Ironfist Clans, and the sea-dwelling Corsairs nothing is known to remain, although the treaty with the High King of the Westmen specified that any servant of the Dark Lord or others who wished to follow after them would be provided safe passage. The Survivors of the east remain hopeful that the last of their lost comrades will someday find their way to the Isles, and the new future they hope to build there. Culture The peoples of the Republic are an incredibly diverse lot, human and nonhuman. Throughout their varying cultures, however, runs a unifying thread: That they will build the utopia of industry and science that the fallen Scholar charged them with, and that any who stand against them will reap a bounty of blood and steel. Never again will they be slave to Man or God. They are tenacious survivors, adaptable and cunning after the devastation of the Ring War and 40 years of Exile in their homeland. They have no army to speak of, despite the fierce warrior cultures embodied in each, and several member races, the Uruk-Hai and Olog-Hai, are in danger of extinction due to lack of ability to reproduce. However, not all is dark. Already the idealistic writings of Sharya-Rana and his Scholars have begun to alter the cultures of the Republic, as more and more men speak of the rights of thinking beings and self-determination over the ancient laws of Crown and Sword, of Laws of War to strip away the warriors right to carry home loot and women from a conquered land, and countless other strange ideas. The number of part-time scholars increases as fast as new paper can be made, and debate on morality and Natural Law now consumes more of it than even the most prolific bureaucrat. Some would see what the Republic is becoming and dub it an Enlightenment, but the people simply think of it as the first step to creating the dreamed-of Empire of Sharya-Rana. For how are Men and Orcs to have a mighty kingdom if first they do not have mighty laws and thoughts? An important aspect of Republic Culture, and one of the few shared bonds between them beyond their Oath to Sharya-Rana, is the Forgetting, wherein all knowledge of the Black Speech of the Ash Lands was deliberately destroyed. For the Old Languages had Power of their own, tied to that of their creators, and that of the Black Speech was owned in totality by the Dark Lord. The spread of the Black Speech as a result of increased dealings with the Dark Lord and his Servants was one of the means by which he spread his influence into the minds of Kings and Chiefs. The only exceptions are the Uruk-Hai and Olog-Hai, who made their Names their own in their rebellion, severing all connection between them and the Dark Lords Power. The Name of the Republic itself can be seen as a final insult to the shade of the Witch King. Sharya-Rana always held the corruption of the Kingdom of Angmar in the old days against his supposed comrade, seeing through nostalgic eyes the budding scholarly movement in the Kingdom before its overthrow for the purpose of war against the Men of the West. In this new Republic, the Survivors hope to fulfill every shred of potential that Sharya-Rana saw in the ancient Kingdom, and surpass it. Easterlings The Easterlings of the Republic, primarily from the Tribal confederation known as the Wainriders, a name often used for the entire people, ranged in their former civilization from steppe-dwelling barbarians to advanced kingdoms of gleaming stone. Two generations of wandering in exile have brought them closer together, but they still remain, as all Men of the Republic, culturally distinct from each other. The array of related cultures and differing customs, often differing languages, is seen as a mark of strength by the Easterlings, that they can fight and survive as one people, though divided by hundreds of divergent customs and languages. Common to them all, however, is a fierce warrior ethic and stubborn tenacity that made them infamous among the warriors of the West, their armed women forming a military reserve to guard their lands while the men are away in many Tribes. The Princes of the Wainriders are among the most powerful of the leaders of the Republic, and the most mired in tradition and relative pageantry, representing the main opposition to becoming a true Republic. Haradrim The Haradrim are a semi-nomadic Tribal people, and fierce fighters. More than any other people of the Republic, they are divided. While the Tribes are highly similar culturally, with none of the wide variety of customs and ethnicity seen in the Easterlings, one of those shared traditions is one of constant small-scale Tribal warfare, usually over sources of water or possession of a group of wild Mûmakil, the taming of which was both a status symbol and a source of great wealth and military power for the Tribe. Adept at finding hidden water sources, capable of toting massive burdens, devastating in war, and providing a mountain of resources even in death, a breeding herd of Mûmakil was always a Tribes most prized possession, and the one most coveted by outsiders. Some Tribes raised their own breeds of Mûmakil, notably the Tribes of the Southwaters, whose Mûmakil were more allies than riding beasts, building their own simple tools and adorning themselves with warpaint before battle. With many of the Mûmakil dying during the 40 Years of Exile, Tribal tensions have risen to great heights despite, or perhaps because of, the sudden plenty of water and arable land. Only time will tell if they can overcome their past and step forward toward the new Civilization, or if they will fall back into a cycle of revenge and war. Variags The Variags are some of the most ferocious warriors of the Republic. Horse Nomads hailing from windswept steppes, they are master cavalrymen, charioteers, and mounted archers. Their military organization is second to none, fighting in advanced formations based on multiples of ten. Among their most feared Warriors were the Berserkers, axe-wielding armored shock troops who crushed any wall of polearms or shields and spears that threatened to block their horse-borne brothers. Alone among the Men of the Republic, their women are equal to men in all walks of life, holding the inheritance rights of Firstborn, riding into battle on horse and chariot, and sometimes even taking up the blood-soaked helms of the Berserkers. During the Exile, they lost many of their warriors and best horses, their traditions and battle arts in danger of dying out. They will need a new generation of young Warriors, and a war to test them in in, soon, lest their ways fall into dust. Uruk-Hai Olog-Hai Orcs Wargs Technology Civil Military Magic Government Military Foreign Relations Economy Category:Nation Category:Secret War